The draft Nice treaty expresses hope that some of the current candidate countries will take part in elections to the European Parliament in 2004 - suggesting that the front-runners in the first wave could be members by then.

But 2004 will be a tough year for the EU as the issues left unresolved by Nice will have to be settled at an inter-governmental conference which aims to define what powers lie in the hands of the union and what the member states retain.